Budget Sequestration Begins at Home

By

Joe Queenan

March 8, 2013 8:42 p.m. ET

It has now become a cliché to describe Congress as "dysfunctional," most recently because of the draconian sequester imposed on the federal budget. Like most banalities, this one is inaccurate, perhaps even stupid. Whatever its faults, Congress is no more dysfunctional than my own household, where decades of out-of-control spending have brought my family to the very brink of disaster.

I'm sure that a lot of American families, if they were honest about it, would say the same thing. Especially affluent ones. We...